Tommy Emmanuel

Emmanuel flickr.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Tommy Emmanuel
Tommy Emmanuel CGP (born May 31, 1955) is an Australian virtuoso guitarist, best known for his fine art of "fingerpicking", which is akin to the way a pianist plays the piano, using all ten fingers. He is considered by some as the greatest fingerpicker in the world today. Emmanuel is a committed Christian since beating substance abuse two decades ago.

Throughout his career he played with many famous legends like Chet Atkins, Eric Clapton, Sir George Martin and John Denver.

Tommy was born in the New South Wales town of Muswellbrook. He began to play guitar at the age of 4 years and by the age of 6 was a working professional musician, as much of his childhood touring Australia with his family band, playing rhythm guitar.

In 1966 when his father died, he started to give guitar lessons at the age of 12. He first came to be noticed nationally when he won a string of talent contests in his teen years, and by the late 1970s, he was playing with his brother Phil in the group Goldrush. During the early 1980s, he joined the reformed lineup of leading '70s rock group Dragon, touring widely with t...